VISIT THE TANK MUSEUM

Well worth the visit A great trip. Very interesting attraction. Well worth the visit. Although we went during school half term did not feel crowded. GO for it

One of the best attractions in Dorset I've been going to the tank museum since I was a child and have always loved it, since then it has expanded hugely into a fantastic family day out, the staff are always wonderful and friendly, the cafe has ample seating a good selection and is reasonably priced and there is a smaller one by the soft play area, if you time it right you can cross the car park to their tank storage which is an amazing sight. There is so much to see and do at the tank museum including dress up and things for the kids to play on/with.
I cannot rate this place highly enough and once you've paid you have entry for a year, my grandkids absolutely love it there so we go again and again.
I would say this is one of the best indoor attractions in Dorset and brilliant for the not so sunny days (and the sunny days). Even if you aren't interested in tanks I think it's a great place to visit and so well laid out that I think most people would be impressed with it.

Fantastic Just awesome as usual. Great displays and interactive things to entertain the children. We especially love the play park out the front with the two tanks. Food in the canteen was really nice. We will be back.

Even if not a big tank fan its still worth going to Had an amazing day at the tank museum. My husband suggested going but I thought it might be a bit boring as I'm not a great tank fan but happily I was wrong. Lots of information and lots to see. We both thoroughly enjoyed our time there.

The Place to see tanks! I had wanted to make a return visit to the tank museum after 10 years and staying in Poole for a couple of days meant that this visit was a must. We were there on a dull Tuesday afternoon in February, having driven down from London and it felt like we had the place to ourselves.

The venue is excellently laid out and features every notable tank of the last century and a bit. It is always fascinating seeing these "big boys toys" up close and marvel at the impact they have had on our history. My father always spoke admiringly of facing the German Tiger tank and the size is VERY intimidating (I suspect all German AFV's were considered Tigers though!)

I personally could not imagine sitting inside one of these metal boxes in a combat situation and this realisation drives my admiration of tankers from all sides.

A great museum. In addition to the awesome displays, there were many activities for children to do and I have made a mental note to return in the spring with my grandsons!

Excellent Museum and an emotional visit. One of the most amazing museums we have visited. The layout of the museum allows you to follow the "Tank Story" from the first tank Little Willy to present day Challenger 2. Along the way you get to see the history of the tank interlinked with the various theatres of war during the major conflicts of the last century.

I had wanted to visit Bovington as a young boy with one of my first Dinky toys being the famous Centurion model. My wife wanted to visit as her father was a tank driver in North Africa during WWII, which is all we new from him and a vague memory of a picture she had of him and his crew next to the tank. If we could identify the Tank maybe we could find out what regiment he was in and where he served.

As we wandered through the museum I was taking photo's while was clearly thinking about her father.

The Tank Story section was highly informative with sections on the iconic tanks making it and interesting journey through time and development of the tank. It is only when you get up close and personal with them that you realise the differing sizes and power - Sherman and Churchill vs Tiger and Panther.

Then on to the Trench experience and the transition from the Cavalry War-horse's to the WWI tanks. The settings in the trenches gave a realistic as possible look at what it was like. Along with the personal accounts of some of the men involved.

The different WWII stories were again well laid out and full of interesting information, facts and stories.

The North African section was where we spent time looking for that elusive tank in the picture. Sadly wy wife didn't recognise the tank from the picture, which could have been one of at least 3 we saw.

Needless ro say we continued and really enjoyed the rest of the Museum.

There is a great souvenir shop at the entrance and it is well worth a visit along with numerous books on the history of the tank and the battles that have been fought with them there are some great momentos to take home with you.

As we finished paying for our purchases on the off chance my wife asked if there was any way she could find out about her father. The lady at the counter was very helpful and gave us some ideas to where to search.

We still had a few weeks of our holiday left, but decided to follow up when we returned home.

The guidance we received at the Tank Museum finally paid off and my wife was able to get here Father's service record.

Her Father's statement "That he was just a tank driver" was the typical understatement by many of his generation.

He enlisted in the Cavalry of the Line in 1934 and was posted to India with the 7th Hussars. He also served in the King's Dragoon Guards and finally the 16th/5th The Lancers as part of the Royal Armoured Corps.

He went to North Africa in November 1942 and fought in the North African Campaign including some of the major battles in Tunisia. He then went to Italy, before ending WWII in Germany. The battle honours of the 16th/5th during WWII o is testament to the men who fought in it.

He was in the crews of Matilda's Valentines's and Sherman III's, but we are still not sure which one was in the picture that started all this off!!!!

After the war he was stationed at Bovington and Lulworth Camps. So we may well have walked in his foots steps at Bovington and given the men from the Lulworth Camp were drinking at the Castle Inn. There is a good chance that we order pints standing at the same bar as he did almost 80 years ago.

Many thanks must go to the staff we spoke to at the Tank Museum that allowed us to fill in his history and my wife's memory of her father, it is greatly appreciated you are all first class.

Would recommend anyone who has not been to visit the Tank Museum it holds the history of generations that were proud of their country and should be remembered always.

Brilliant If you are a tank/war geek this is the place to go. There is stuff for younger kids to do all around the museum. It's an amazing place! The cafe was reasonable and there are plenty of toilets around. The staff were really friendly and super helpful giving out more information on tanks and regimental history. We didn't see any tank displays and it was still a fantastic day out.

A good visit very enjoyable visit was much bigger than expected and very well displayed. Cafe was ok as expected only down side was in January the main halls was very cold not sure if this was a heating issue or always like this in cold weather. All in a great place to visit!

Busy but brilliant It is an amazing journeyed through history . It is the perfect place to take your little soldiers . They will love climbing in the tanks and trying all of the activities .